Lord of Mysteries 2: Circle of Inevitability

1004  The Solution

Seeing Zhou Mingrui looking at her, waiting for an answer, Luo Shan said uncertainly, "It seems like things are back to normal…"

She had thought Zhou Mingrui wouldn't believe her judgment. After all, they hadn't encountered anything or seen any signs of danger, and they still didn't know if Luo Fu had been rescued. How could she say everything was "back to normal"?

To her surprise, Zhou Mingrui nodded thoughtfully. "I think so too."

After a couple of seconds, Zhou Mingrui asked, "Do we still need to look for Luo Fu?"

"I-I'll take another look…" Luo Shan cautiously walked to the edge of the elevator lobby and peeked out.

She looked around and felt that aside from being too quiet with no one passing through, there wasn't much difference between this underground area and any other hospital basement.

…

Emergency Center, in a shadowy corner.

Lumian and Franca simultaneously saw Jenna, dressed in a nightgown, her eyes dazed and unsure of what to do.

She's been kicked out of the dream… Both Lumian and Franca quickly came to the same conclusion.

At that moment, Jenna also spotted Franca and Lumian. The tension and worry in her heart suddenly eased.

Without saying much, Lumian grabbed Jenna's arm with his other hand and disappeared with her into the edge of the shadows.

The three of them soon returned to Room 2303 in Dechuang Garden.

After checking the room's condition, Lumian said to Jenna, "Everything's fine now. Get some rest."

He wasn't sure how the dream Jenna would "rationalize" what had just happened, so he kept his explanation vague to avoid any cognitive conflict.

As for the teleportation, it was impossible to hide it any longer. After all, Zhou Mingrui had already become deeply aware of the supernatural powers at play, and there were indeed quite a few Beyonders active in the dream city.

Jenna, surprised, glanced around the familiar environment and obediently replied, "Okay."

After she entered the room and lay down on the bed, Lumian closed the bedroom door for her, then turned to Franca and said,

"Let's go back to Mushu Hospital now. We'll talk about what happened once we're there."

Franca didn't ask why and slowly nodded.

Using teleportation, Lumian took Franca to the greenery outside Mushu Hospital and turned his gaze towards the emergency center and the hospital building.

Seeing the shattered glass and the scorched parts of the walls, Lumian finally said to Franca, "I think what happened today was too much of a coincidence. Zhou Mingrui came to investigate the situation at Mushu Hospital, and at the same time, you ended up in the underground area."

"What exactly happened?"

Hearing the word "coincidence," Franca's emotions wavered slightly.

She pulled herself together and recounted how she and Jenna had found themselves in the underground of Mushu Hospital after falling asleep, how they encountered Luo Shan, her suspicions, and the psychological traumas they later encountered.

"At the time, the corridor started collapsing." Franca stopped speaking and fell silent again.

Lumian glanced at her but didn't press for details. Instead, he mused aloud, "It really was a coincidence. If you look at the events separately, it's logical that Zhou Mingrui, prompted by my warning during the day and his own initiative, chose tonight to investigate Mushu Hospital. Similarly, it's plausible that the force lurking in Luo Shan's room or nearby, taking advantage of her psychological traumas and the dream's nature, 'brought' you into the hospital's underground. Both seem reasonable and could have happened naturally."

"But the fact that these two things happened at the same time and influenced each other makes it obvious that something was off."

"And at the same time, I received a tipoff from Lu Yong'an and followed Zhou Mingrui to sneak into Mushu Hospital."

Franca instinctively said, "But who could set up an arrangement for Zhou Mingrui?"

"They didn't need to arrange him. Arranging us was enough." Lumian, still in his Demoness of Despair state, let out a cold laugh. "When Zhou Mingrui would investigate Mushu Hospital was uncertain, but once he was spotted, they could trigger the other side."

"The force lurking in or near Luo Shan's room must have been there for a while. Why didn't it act sooner or later? Why tonight?"

Franca fell silent for a moment, as if she had finally regained her ability to think, and said, "Was Lu Yong'an arranged as well?"

"Not necessarily. It's possible they discovered my problem as a Child of God and knew something would happen tonight, so they lured me in, using your predicament to force me to become the true Child of God." After thinking for a few seconds, Lumian added, "It's also likely that Lu Yong'an isn't like Grimm, a dream persona influenced by the Great Mother. She has an external consciousness."

At this point, Lumian paused, his gaze cold as he muttered to himself, "A guardian for women and children…"

…

Inside Mushu Hospital, the power system of the building hadn't been affected by the lightning strike. Only the ground separating the upper and lower floors showed a very obvious charred area, and one of the elevators had stopped functioning.

Lu Yong'an walked down the dimly lit corridor and reached a certain room.

A wooden sign hung outside the door, with Chinese characters written on it: "Dean's Office."

She knocked and entered, speaking to the person beside the shattered glass window.

"She still didn't choose the Mother's help."

"I see," a voice responded.

…

Trier, inside a luxurious villa.

Jenna observed Franca's "sleeping state" while recounting their ordeal and Franca's decisions to Madam Judgment, Madam Magician, and Madam Justice.

After she finished, Madam Magician nodded thoughtfully and said, "It's still unclear what exactly we were supposed to gain from tonight's events, or what the true purpose was…"

Before she could finish her sentence, Madam Justice, looking at the sleeping Franca, said,

"Two of Cups has left the underground area of Mushu Hospital. I can now sense her and her surroundings." n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Upon hearing this, Jenna's body swayed slightly, as if she had lost the strength to even keep herself upright due to a sudden sense of relief.

Her breathing became heavy, and after a few seconds, she asked, "It's over?"

"Not entirely," Madam Magician said, taking her gaze off the sleeping Franca.

Jenna seemed to realize something and asked, with deep concern, "Right, she held the ritual in the dream, cleverly advancing to Sequence 4 and becoming a Demoness of Despair. It's unknown how long it will take her to fully digest the Despair potion, and…"

Jenna suddenly stopped, unable to finish her sentence.

What she had been about to say was, "And our goal is to awaken Mr. Fool as soon as possible, to end this dream, but that would conflict with the conditions for Franca's survival."

In front of the Tarot Club's Major Arcana card holders, she dared not utter those words, fearing the brutal answer she might receive.

"I understand your concern, but that's not really an issue. Or, to put it another way, it's not as serious as you think."

"Huh?" Jenna was surprised, both delighted and bewildered.

Madam Justice maintained her soft smile and explained, "First, Two of Cups has already made considerable progress in digesting the Despair potion. She's completed the part about 'making herself despair.' The next step is to find opportunities to make others despair. If she can refine her acting principles further during this process, the digestion will go even faster."

Jenna blinked, confused.

"She's already digested nearly half of the Despair potion, right after advancing?"

"Yes," Madam Magician agreed, her tone carrying an understanding note. "It's quite similar to Lumian's situation at the time. Except Lumian quickly made two boon demigods despair…"

"Exactly," Madam Magician continued, nodding knowingly. "Given the nature of your circumstances and how things unfolded, it was almost inevitable that people would fall into a state of despair. Mr. Fool's psychological traumas may also contain elements that push Franca into complete despair—things that sever her hopes and desires entirely."

Jenna's eyes moved slightly, and she muttered, "Quite the coincidence…"

Madam Justice sighed with a smile. "Yes, that's one reason. But the other reason why I said that Two of Cups' dream advancement isn't too serious is because, given a little time—just a few minutes—she could return to reality without dying, though there would be other costs."

"Really?" Jenna was both surprised and confused.

Madam Justice chuckled lightly and explained, "While we're limited in what we can do, there are still many things we're capable of.

"For example, a Sun pathway Unshadowed can extract Beyonder characteristics, even from a Beyonder, layer by layer, from high to low. Though Two of Cups advanced in the dream, her reality also advanced, which is why she can't leave the dream before fully digesting her potion."

"In other words, we could have Mr. Sun extract the Demoness of Despair's Beyonder characteristic from Two of Cups in reality, and I would stabilize her mental state during the process. Once her body in reality regresses to the level of a Demoness of Affliction, there would be no more concern about her losing control upon leaving the dream."

"Of course, this solution would leave some problems behind, some quite serious ones, which is why we didn't mention it as a solution before. But compared to losing her life in the dream, these issues are manageable."

Jenna stood there, dazed.

The dream advancement affected reality, and regressing in reality would cause a similar effect in the dream?

If you can't influence the dream, then change the state of reality?

…

Outside Mushu Hospital, in the greenery.

Hidden in the shadows, Lumian observed the hospital building, the patients coming and going, and the emergency response personnel who had just arrived, but he didn't spot any targets of note.

After a long silence, Franca finally spoke. "They might have already left. Maybe they never showed up in the first place."

"Yeah, you could check some short videos. With the glass shattered and the building struck by lightning, I'm sure a lot of people recorded it. Maybe we'll find something."

"Right." Lumian took out his phone and began scrolling through local news, not missing a single video.

When he reached a video titled "Oh my god, all the glass shattered," he suddenly spotted a familiar figure in the corner of the frame, near the edge of the emergency center.

That figure had messy blonde hair, blue eyes, short eyebrows, and a clear stubble on his face. He was wearing a black shirt.

Lumian's gaze instantly froze.

It was Grisha.

Grisha, Peng Deng's co-renter!